Four men have been arrested for allegedly hatching a plan to kill gangster Chhota Rajan, presently lodged in Tihar jail, at the behest of his arch-rival and fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim’s confidant Chh
Four men have been arrested for allegedly hatching a plan to kill gangster Chhota Rajan, presently lodged in Tihar jail, at the behest of his arch-rival and fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim’s confidant Chhota Shakeel.
The Delhi police is investigating whether some junior staff members of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences were approached by the four alleged contract killers hired by Chhota Shakeel to facilitate Rajan’s murder.
The four men — identified as Robinson, Junaid, Yunus and Manish — were arrested on June 3 and during their custodial interrogation for five days, the purported plan to kill Chhota Rajan was unearthed. They were later remanded to judicial custody in Tihar Jail, where Rajan is already lodged.
“They told us that since Rajan’s transit was minimal considering that court proceedings are in-camera, the only vulnerable place they could think of was the AIIMS where he was taken for a medical check-up. They were promised '10 lakh for the task. We have booked all of them for criminal conspiracy,” said a senior police officer.
He added that a close aide of Chhota Shakeel had first contacted Junaid about the plan to allegedly eliminate Chhota Rajan, who later roped in others. All four men are from different parts of Delhi and the National Capital Region and knew each other well.
“We have call records to suggest that Junaid was in contact with Chhota Shakeel,” said the officer.
The plan was initially to kill Chhota Rajan while on transit to or from court before and after hearings, but that was later changed to attacking him during his hospital visits, the accused told the police during interrogation. “Investigation of the matter is underway,” special commissioner of police (special cell) Arvind Deep said without divulging details. The special cell zeroed in on the four accused through telephone intercepts as they were in constant touch with Shakeel. Once identified, the four were picked up from their residences in Rohini in Outer Delhi, Seelampur in northeast Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida. The police also claimed have recovered a pistol and live cartridges from possession of one of the accused. Chhota Rajan, a friend turned foe of Dawood, was brought to India last November after spending life as a fugitive for around 27 years. He was arrested from Bali in Indonesia, based on a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.
